The season of Lent has inspired composers to write some of their most beautiful and poignant works, plumbing the depths of human emotion. This concert presents a meditative collection of musical expressions of the Passion story, from the recently rediscovered Passion Week by Gretchaninov, to the Pulitzer-Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang - a modern-day allegorical take on Medieval mystery plays, in a format inspired by Bach.

Influences for Lang’s Crowd Out encompass a wide range of public singing and vocalising, including the excitement created by football chanting – a common theme being the sense of community created through ‘performance’. The result is an entirely new kind of piece and a serious musical work that anyone can perform! A BCMG Sound Investment, Spitalfields Music and Berlin Philharmonic co-commission,

Crowd Out will be performed in Birmingham, Berlin and London in June 2014 under the baton of internationally renowned choral conductor Simon Halsey – with each organisation building its own ‘home-grown’ community to rehearse and perform the piece. Crowd Out has been written so that anyone can take part, including those with no musical background or training, and for the world premiere performances at Millennium Point BCMG will be recruiting 1000 voices from across Birmingham from early November 2013.

Saturday, June 14, 2014 - Sunday, June 15, 2014

The institutions at the Berlin Kulturforum developed the idea to jointly celebrate a big party for two days to which all Berliners and guests from outside the city are cordially invited. It will be happening on this June weekend: the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation and the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage are staging their first joint summer fest. On both days the most varied places in the Kulturforum will be played in manifold ways, and the audience will be inspired to join in: dance, theatre and music, fashion, architecture, photography and film, as well as graphic design and painting, can be experienced in exhibitions, concerts, performances, workshops and tours. The Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Sir Simon Rattle will, together with the Rundfunkchor Berlin and Berlin children and young people, perform Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, one of the most successful music theatre compositions of the 20th century, on the large open space of the Forum. Furthermore, the organ virtuoso Cameron Carpenter will explore the various worlds of sound of “his” instrument, on the Karl Schuke organ in the great concert hall of the Philharmonie, at St. Matthäikirche, in the Museum of Musical Instruments and at an open air concert. One of the many high points is provided by the German premiere of the new choral work Crowd Out! contributed to the event by New York composer and Pulitzer prize winner David Lang. The work is presented by the Education department of the Berliner Philharmoniker in the scope of their project “Berlin sings!”: a work for which 1,000 performers – musicians and laymen – will transform the entire Kulturforum into a soundscape. “The idea for the piece,” Lang says, “came to me about 20 years ago: I was in London, had some time and went to an Arsenal game. It was very loud – everybody sang together and I felt part of a community. Some had nice voices, others didn’t, some were singing separately, others in groups. At that moment, all of these people, singing or yelling, formed a community. I loved it …”

1000 East Londoners to star in CROWD OUT by Pulitzer Music Prize-winning American composer David Lang. The Tower Hamlets and City of London Music Hub, in partnership with Spitalfields Music, has been awarded a prestigious grant from Arts Council England to bring CROWD OUT, a major international community vocal event to the borough in June 2014 – one of the largest vocal projects ever staged in East London.

Spitalfields Music and lead partner for the Hub Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service (THAMES) have joined forces to secure a grant to stage the only London performances of CROWD OUT in Tower Hamlets’ Boundary Estate, Arnold Circus on 21 and 22 June 2014 (part of a series of high-profile international performances also taking place in Birmingham and Berlin).

Spitalfields Music will be launching a hunt for local people of all ages and abilities to form a 1000 strong, all-singing, all-shouting super group in late 2013. CROWD OUT will also involve collaboration with the London Symphony Orchestra’s LSO Discovery programme and their Choral Director, Simon Halsey. No singing or musical experience is required, just a desire to be part of a truly extraordinary international event and to make your voice heard.

Abigail Pogson, Chief Executive of Spitalfields Music comments: “The grant from Arts Council England is a major endorsement of the partnership between Spitalfields Music and Tower Hamlets, particularly THAMES. More than that, it’s a vote of confidence for one of London’s most creative and dynamic boroughs. CROWD OUT will be a fantastic event both for participants and for audiences and we’re looking forward to giving 1000+ East Londoners something special to shout about in 2014.”

Karen Brock, Head of Tower Hamlets Arts and Music Education Service comments: “Over the next three years THAMES is determined to get every child in Tower Hamlets singing, as part of the fulfilment of the National Music Plan. This project gives us real momentum, bringing both parents and children together with the phenomenal partnership of some of our world class music partners in Tower Hamlets.”

Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman said: “Arts and Music education is a big priority in Tower Hamlets and our award winning THAMES service provides hundreds of children with high quality music education. We are excited to host such a great event in Tower Hamlets and look forward to seeing our talented children and young people take part.”

‘Earlybirds’ wishing to be first on the list to take part in CROWD OUT can email crowdout [at] spitalfieldsmusic [dot] org [dot] uk

CROWD OUT is a new work by the American composer David Lang commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, Spitalfields Music and the Berlin Philharmonic for 1,000 ‘whispering, singing, chanting’ participants, drawn from a wide community.

The world premiere performance, produced by BCMG, will take place in Birmingham over the weekend of 7-8 June 2014 followed by performances in London (21 & 22 June 2014) produced by Spitalfields Music with partners THAMES and LSO Discovery, and in Berlin by the Berlin Philharmonic (14 & 15 June 2014).

Crowd Out is commissioned by Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, with financial Assistance from Arts Council West Midlands and individuals through BCMG’s Sound Investment scheme; Spitalfields Music, with major funding support from Arts Council England and financial assistance from its New Music Commission Fund, and Berlin Philharmonic.

The London premiere of Crowd Out will be a free public performance taking place on Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 June 2014 at Arnold Circus, Boundary Estate in Tower Hamlets. Crowd Out is the closing performance of Spitalfields Music Summer Festival 2014, and a gala event of the Spitalfields Music Learning & Participation Programme’s 25th Anniversary.